A story for Valentine’s Day…

A day made for love when we love everyday!

A short love story for Valentine’s Day.

The Poem

It was a Saturday. One of my days off; I had promised my manager a poem for the next issue of the Office magazine. The submission was 5 days away and I had not started working on it yet. I was still in bed thinking about it when I heard Mom calling me for breakfast. I thought it was for Sandhya, my sister. She is studying in her final year of engineering and has classes only on Friday and Saturday and rest of the days for project work which I was helping her out with.

I got up from bed finished my morning chores.  I felt like taking a bath, took my towel and went to the bathroom. I heard the bell ring as I went inside the bathroom. I was still in bath towel around my waist when I came out of bathroom. I heard a knock and next moment I saw Sandhya coming in “Bro need that Chetan Bhagat Book” she turned around as her friend too came in, “which one Pooja?” she continued. I ran into bathroom bellowing “For god sake wait for my permission to come into the room!”. Sandhya had a big laugh about it. I asked them to come after a few min.

After 15 min they both came in, Sandhya was still laughing. “You in seeing condition!” . I was totally pissed. I had a crush on Pooja and was wondering what she was thinking. “So which book?’i asked,  “I wanted Five point someone” replied Pooja. “It’s a good book”I replied to her with a smile.

I had a whole rack filled with books. I thought it was among top two shelves but it wasn’t there. I realized it might be in the bags from my engineering days as I had read it at that time. Mom interrupted “Raghu ,come have your breakfast its getting cold.”

“your classes start by 11 right?” I asked, they both nodded saying yes. “It’s almost 9 now, will find and give it you before you guys leave” I told to Pooja. “ok, fine” replied Sandhya. Pooja smiled as she closed the door behind her. Her eyes were gorgeous…

A poem was already ringing in my head. I took a sheet and pen along with me to the dining table. Started writing as mom brought the breakfast. “So what did you think of the conversation we had yesterday?” I am 27 and parents have been chasing me to get married. I was trying my best to avoid. Seeing my silence she continued “If you have someone in mind let us know.”

I continued my silence and finished my breakfast as soon as possible. Saw Sandhya and Pooja coming towards the dining room . “I will find it and give it to you” I smiled. Sandhya made a face as Pooja smiled. Few more words fell out of my head!

I wrote them in the sheet after I came back to room. I opened couple of my college bags and found the book. As it was already late, I heard Sandhya shouting “Are you sleeping again?”, I went out of my room and handed it to Pooja. She kept it inside her bag and then they both left.

I finished my poem, kept it over the desk. Had lunch and then left to see friends. Around 7PM I got a call from Mom. I could hear her smiling as I answered. “why didn’t you tell me you like Pooja in the morning itself? Her parents are here to talk about the marriage. It seems even they saw the poem you wrote for her. Dad and I are both ok about it, So chill. Come home they will be staying for dinner.” She cut the call.

I could not believe what just had happened. I said bye to my friends and just left from there. They looked puzzled but I was more puzzled than them to explain anything! I got to the bike trying to still make sense of what just happened. I rode back to home. As I was riding I realized what had happened. I reached my home. Sandhya was talking on mobile in the corridor. She cut the call seeing me. “You could have at least told me Bro, I can’t believe…” before she would continue I placed my hand covering her face and said ”Listen I agree I have a Crush on her..” I told her what I had realized on the way. ”Oh, shit. What are we gonna do?” she replied. “I need to talk to her, Sandy, alone “I replied. “ Bro she likes you and now thinking about it, you two would look good together” she smiled. “I need to talk to her “I said and we both went in.

Pooja’s parents were sitting along with my parents completely immersed in discussions. All looked happy. As soon as I came in Pooja saw me, she had shyness in her face and she looked very cute with the smile. Her father said “Raghu, your poem was fantastic”. I couldn’t believe that were the first words from her Dad! Everybody laughed. All I could manage was “Thank you”.

They gave a lecture about life, love in general. They said they were cool with what had happened. As both knew each other’s family they readily agreed for the marriage. I was silent the whole time. After a lot of thinking “Can I speak to Pooja alone?” I asked. They all laughed at me. “Sure. Is that why you were silent the whole time? Shy to speak to your girl in front of us, only through letters huh!!” my mom said. Everybody started to laugh again. I didn’t know how to react to that. I saw Pooja, got up from my chair and started walking towards my room, she followed.

Once we were In I took a deep breath. She sat on my chair beside the desk and turned facing me. Before I could say anything “That poem was amazing, I loved each and every line of it. After reading that poem I fell completely for you. My parents….” She stopped and looked at me. I don’t know what expression I was giving, she said “sorry, you wanted to say something” she said.

At that moment i realized i liked to listen to her. I smiled and said “ go on complete what you want to say”. “My parents took that letter as I was reading it. Once they came to know it was you who had written it, they just talked to your parents and we are all here now. My mom likes you. She readily agreed to get me married off to you.” She said with her face down smiling.

“Listen, I wanted to say something” she faced me again.Her smile made it hard for me to say, but I had to “That poem it was not about you. I was close to a girl when I was doing engineering. I had written it for her. When I gave it to her, She asked me what it was, I told her it was my love letter for her. She threw the sheet without even looking at it. I didn’t even listen what she was saying after that. I Just took the letter and ran from there. I was hurt very bad. I had placed the letter in the book and didn’t remember it was actually there!”.Pooja was shocked, I could make out from her face. She stood there. She had tears on her face. I don’t know why but it hurt me seeing her like that.

Pooja slowly started moving towards the door. She was about to open the door. I held her hand , she froze.

I have no idea from where I got that courage. I made her look back at me. “Look at me. That’s past. I had forgotten about it. I do have a crush on you. But now I feel it’s something more as well” she looked at me, but this time it was different.  I took her hand and brought it near to my heart “If you are ok with my past, I would love to spend my future with you.. I think I am falling in love with you”.

She fell to my chest. I hugged her tight. She Looked at me and said softly “I want a poem first, will you write one just for me.”

“I already have written one for you!” I showed the letter that was on the desk….

 THE END

Enjoy the life with your love not just the day but the whole year… Take care